Sermon Tone Analysis

Glad you are here today.

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God speaks....

a series focusing on the minor prophets, rarely considered voices of the Bible… minor only because of their length of their writing, not saying anything about the importance of their ministry or that their message is minor.

Their message in fact is HUGE!

We are going to see that God Speaks to them in amazing ways, ways we might recognize God speaking to us today, God speaks through dreams and visions, his word, through circumstances, through opportunities.

God speaks in all sorts of ways and today just like then, the root of His message is I LOVE YOU!

This is nor more clear than in this first book, Hosea.

We are going oto look at just the first 3 chapters, but I encourage you to read the whole book, it won’t take too long.

In Hosea’s writings you hear loud and clear the voice of God speaking I LOVE YOU.

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Pray with me.

Lord, use your word today to encourage me and to challenge me, AMEN.

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My cousin Charlotte, crazy about her son Robby.

We do some crazy things in the name of love.

A crazy love story

Hosea, a prophet to Israel.

Israel (north) and Judah (south) seperated by civil war.

Both the north and the south had had outrageous kings, none worse than Jeroboam II, the last King of Israel, who was conquered by Assyria.

We will talk more about this in the weeks to come, you can read all about it in

Told by God to go and take a wife, but not just any wife.

God told Hosea to go and marry a prostitute.

Like you the question strikes me, why?

The text explains,

This isn’t normal now and it wasn’t then.

So what did Hosea do?

This was just wrong… he’s a prophet for God for goodness sake, what are people going to say?

But Hosea loves God and wants to be used by God, so he does what God says.

A question pops up right here.

How did he know it was God speaking to him?

This wasn’t a normal expectation from God for his prophets to marry prostitutes.

In fact this was very strange.

You might say, well it was the voice of God, wouldn’t we know God’s voice?

Maybe, but maybe we would think we were crazy.

Maybe you are hearing God speak to you.

He’s calling you to serve in a new way, or to practice generosity, or to step out into vocational ministry, or maybe it’s to go and offer forgiveness to her because she doesn’t realize how deep her words cut you, or maybe it’s to confront him regarding his sin because he doesn’t see how it’s affecting others..

How can we discern what God says to be truly the voice of God? Number one way, is it in keeping with his word?

Is what I’m hearing in keeping with God’s word, his Character, his nature?

In order to know that, you have to know the God of the Scriptures.

“Is what I’m hearing in keeping with Scripture?”

Hosea a prophet, God used him to call the people back to faithfulness, Now we have God asking him to become the message.

If you hear the voice of God and you aren’t sure if it’s God asking you to do something, one way to sort it out quick is this: “Is what I’m hearing in keeping with Scripture?”

Convinced it was the voice of God, Hosea, whose name signifies SALVATION marries Gomer (which means Completion)…

So COMPLETE and SALVATION start out in this new life, and everything was good at first, but then over time, bit by bit Gomer drifted back to the old wild life from which she had come, and day after day Hosea returned home wondering if his wife would be home.

Night after night he lay awake long after it was good for him … waiting for his wife to return.

I'm confident that the prophet must have prayed.

I'm confident he must have taken his domestic burden to the Lord.

Then they had a son.

I’m sure that Hosea had a moment of hope that this would change everything, but then God told him to name his son Jezreel.

One writer said that while it might not mean much to us today, to Jew it would be like naming your child Dachau.

Dachau, the prison camp where thousands of Jews were killed by the Germans.

Now imagine having to go to the food court and call out for him - Jezreel… or at the soccer game - Jezreel… you would get everyone’s attention.

With this name God was using Hosea, his son, and his wife to make a statement about God’s relationship with Israel.

It was a reminder that God had dealt with the sin of Israel in a dramatically painful way.

Then Gomer comes home one day and tells Hosea shes pregnant again, but Hosea knows this one is not his.

But who was he kidding, he had expected this sooner or later.

A girl is born and The Lord tells Hosea

“Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them.”

The picture is coming clear now isn’t it.

Then another child is born, again not Hosea's.

God is showing everyone through Hosea’s family that their sin has not gone unnoticed… any more than the adultery of Gomer.

Chapter 2 of his letter describes the conflict between Hosea and Gomer, how she is tempted by the trappings provided to her by her suitors so much so that she is willing to walk away from one who loves her truly and wants noting from her.... only wants her to be safe and loved.

This seems strange, but while it was the promise of fine food and jewelry for Gomer, the love of food, wealth, and security for the Israelites had led them to worship the pagan gods.

Not my people.... no mercy

Then it happened.

What Hosea knew would eventually happen.

She didn’t come home.

It wasn’t a surprise at first, but after one night turned into two and three and seven it became clear that she wasn’t coming back.

Was she alive?

Had she been killed by one of her other men?

It kept him up all night, only to hear the kids wake up early as well.

Another day, pulling double duty; he wondered if he would get used to this new routine.

Just then God spoke again in the midst of his personal pity party.

Where do you go to get her back?

Where do you go to find your wife when she is a prostitute?

Sadly you start walking the streets in that part of town… it doesn’t matter if you are a prophet or a preacher.

You starting asking people if they’ve “seen” her.

Then you find her.

Chapter 3 tells us she has found herself not just working as a prostitute, but now she is on the auction block as a sex slave.

Hosea enters in the auction in order to buy her back even though she is his wife; he does what he has to do.

15 Shekels of silver and some barley.

A pretty low value, it probably says a lot about the fact that she had been a victim of whoredom as the bible calls it for some time… she was pretty worthless at this point.

Worthless to everyone but Hosea… and apparently God that is.

So he takes her back to be his wife and him to be her husband.

And in the same way, the people would return to their God .... get this …

 But afterward the people will return and devote themselves to the LORD their God and to David’s descendant, their king.

God is telling Hosea that his love for Gomer is a statement about his love for Israel.

It’s also a statement that eventually they will love their King Jesus.

God is doing this...No matter how wrong they have been, no matter their sin, no matter their mistakes.

He loves because he loves.

How often do we consier that?

We know God loves us, but do we consider it?

Think about it.

How many of you know John 3:16?

What does it say?

Again?

Let me ask you, has that verse lost some of its meaning?

has it become just a fact that you know?

Think about what this verse is saying.

This is the CRAZIEST THING ever done in the name of love

“For God so loved”

That word SO is powerful.